The largest animal feed manufacturing firm in the country, Karma Feeds, has not been able to meet its normal production for the past few months affecting the poultry farmers and agents.
This is mainly because the company has been faced with a shortage of maize which is the primary ingredient for their product.
The firm in Pasakha, usually, produces about 100 metric tons of feeds in a day, which is about 75 per cent of the total feed requirements in the country.
But today, the production has reduced to nearly half of their usual production.
The company imports maize which is the main raw material for the feeds from India. But due to climatic factors, late sowing, land use change and competition from starch factories in India, import of maize have been affected.
“At this juncture, we are in a very critical situation. We have lots of demand from the end users but on the other hand, the non-availability of the raw materials especially the maize, the price has skyrocketed. Normally we pay around 14 to 18 rupees per kg. However, this year we ended up paying 22 rupees per kg,” Chencho Wangyel, the Director of Karma Feeds, said.
Karma feeds use about 18,000 metric tons of maize annually to produce poultry, pig and cattle feed. According to company officials, although local maize is of higher quality, the annual supply does not even come to fifteen metric ton.
The company says they will be able to increase production only if the supply of maize from India goes back to normal.
